“In the Space of Six Days, And All Very Good”

True Christians have always believed the Scriptures to be the inerrant Word of God. Thus, they have held the Genesis account of Creation to be accurate and true. However, following Charles Darwin’s first steps onto the Galapagos Islands on September 18, 1835, many have constructed fanciful schemes to try to harmonize the evolutionary hypothesis of origins with the Creation account in the Scriptures.

Darwin’s publication of his On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, first published on November 24, 1859, gave opportunity for the enemies of God to conduct an unrelenting attack on the veracity of the Scriptures and indeed on the very existence of God. The use of these evolutionary principles in the intervening years has seen the commission of horrendously evil acts in the political, cultural, economic and societal realms, as one can easily imagine just by reading the full title of Darwin’s book.

The Bible and Christianity are champions of true science. Science has improved all of our lives with the many amazing discoveries that have been uncovered and facts which have been proven by diligent investigation and testing.

Scientific pursuit can arise from a number of motivations. Often it springs simply from a curiosity and a quest for knowledge of the unknown. Most modern science is concentrated and funded with the purpose of bringing about positive change — everything from developing cures for diseases, to finding cost-efficient and renewable sources of energy.
Any verifiable scientific discovery is not in conflict with the Scriptures, since God is the author of ALL truth. Unlocking the mysteries of God’s creation is merely the revealing of truth. For instance, our ancestors made the scientific discoveries (from testing and reproducing the results [they had no idea they were “scientists”!]) that eating spinach can be a safe, healthy part of one’s diet, whereas the poison ivy plant causes a very uncomfortable rash. Through more advanced scientific examination, the wonderful vitamins and minerals in spinach were discovered, and urushiol was found to be the chemical culprit in poison ivy. Building on these established points of knowledge, further truth was obtained by examining how these vitamins, minerals and chemicals interact with our bodies, and why they produce the results they do.

Scientist Johannes Kepler (1571–1630) described science as “thinking God’s thoughts after Him.” Indeed, to “unlock” the mysteries of God’s creation is a noble pursuit, provided that the knowledge gained is not used for evil.

The problem with evolutionary biology is that the “scientific method” can never be completed, since there is too much that is unknowable about what took place thousands of years ago (and particularly millions or billions of years ago, should the modern evolutionist be believed). It also is impossible for scientists to replicate the creation of the universe. Despite the advanced dating technologies, observations and amazing discoveries of all sorts, evolutionary biology is still predicated on the philosophy of naturalism and a strong bias against supernaturalism.

Much of the modern scientific establishment has set itself up as the final arbiter of truth, with little self-assessment as to the very great limits of its knowledge and understanding. There is no recognition that “cognitive bias,” and the requisite acceptance of unproven foundational premises, obviously play a great part in affecting many of the conclusions and hard assertions which are made.

In the study of origins and human development, any who dare engage in legitimate “scientific inquiry” which is not approved by the establishment are severely persecuted — rather than scientifically disproved. “Peer review” can be a very helpful step in scientific progress. However, when totalitarian control is exerted by a scientific establishment alarmingly tainted by political and philosophical — rather than scientific — concerns, huge problems present themselves.

To hear some in this so-called “scientific community,” you would think you were listening to Radio Pyongyang, rather than to true scientists with a thirst for discovery, investigation and inquiry. The title of Ben Stein’s 2008 documentary, “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed,” is not unfounded! Neither is the fact that large numbers of people, many of them well educated, simply don’t buy the whole evolutionary scheme — much to the extreme frustration and irritation of those in the self-ordained scientific seats of power.

Unfortunately, many in the church have sold the precious truths of God’s Word for a “mess of potage.” Theistic evolution, which denies the claim that God created man directly (Genesis 1:26–27), and that Adam was a real man (Genesis 2:21–23), is now held by many in the evangelical world. Others hold the Creation story to be a “myth” which is simply teaching a truth, but not with details based in reality. Others allegorize Genesis 1 and 2, stating that the name Adam is not referring to an individual man, but is used to represent all mankind. Of course, the Scriptures quickly contradict these assertions. The Apostle Paul, in Romans, unequivocally states his belief in Adam as an individual — the first human being.

The Westminster Divines declared that “It pleased God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, for the manifestation of the glory of His eternal power, wisdom, and goodness, in the beginning, to create or make of nothing the world, and all things therein, whether visible or invisible, in the space of six days, and all very good” (Westminster Confession of Faith 4:1).

Many today try to bend the language of Scripture (and of the Confession) to say that these “days” might each have been long periods of time. However, Moses tells us in the Second Commandment: “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it” (Exodus 20:8–11). To believe that we should arbitrarily swing back and forth between obviously literal days, to periods of many years, is to wrest language out of its clear and usual meaning to support an unclear and unusual meaning.

These evangelicals make compromising adaptations thinking that they can devise new meanings for Scriptural language which is more in line with modern scientific thinking. Some believe they are furthering the cause of respectability by not conflicting with current scientific dogma. This is often done without any warrant at all being found in the text itself.

This is to cede to the doubters that all things have occurred merely by natural processes, and that scientists can really prove things which simply can never be verified by the scientific method. If we believe in the supernatural God of the Scriptures, who performed many mighty miracles, then we should EXPECT that many phenomena in the world will NOT follow the expectations and patterns of mere naturalism.

“When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him?” (Psalm 8:3). •